Star Trek: Redemption Becoming
by AngelsDawnboss
Summary: In the years following the failed Coup by Shinzon the Galaxy has become a much more dangerous place. The Starship Redemption and her crew must go out and defend the Federation from the most dangerous enemy of all - insane members of thier own Starfleet.
1. Chapter 1

Candlelight glimmered against the finely polished surface of a glass table, the light striking against the opaque surface of a single black mug filled with ice cold Coca Cola. Smooth jazz music played softly in the background, soothing the ears of the man laying motionless on a single biobed protruding out of the grey bulkhead surrounding the room with its inescapable air of sickness and wounds. The patient, still wearing the uniform of a Starfleet Captain, did not show any sign of awareness of his surroundings, even as a lithe women moved gracefully and swiftly into the private ward in which he lay for his prolonged slumber. Her hair fanned about her smooth head like a jet black halo as she swept to the side of this comatose Captain. The cold, forboding look on her face softened as she regarded the face of the man below. Her thin, sharply manicured fingers let a golden envelope flutter gently onto the folds of the blankets warming the man beneath. It settled silently as her lips touched his, her senses exploding with the feelings that lay suppressed within her beating heart. She savoured the moment like it was her last, finally pulling away to whisper in a lilting, almost childlike voice into the Captain's ear. 

"And now i lay thee down to sleep. The Lord I pray his soul may keep."

He did not wake for several days. But when his eyes finally fluttered open, painfully readjusting to the continuance of the war against miniscule dust particles floating in the air around them, he found the envelope. Clumsily he tore it open, gently unfolding the yellowed peice of old Earth paper contained within. On it were scant words, short and without point to all but the reader.

"Spared the light. Spared the call."

8 years to the day when that Captain's eyes fluttered open once more an Admiral stared at those words, written so meticulously in dark ink on old paper. The same eyes that had read that note 8 years ago now looked for new meaning in them, staring far beyond the ink and paper as his mind turned over those far gone events in his past. He sighed and looked out of the glass that gifted him with a view of the cosmos, looking to the peacefully twinkling stars for an answer he could not gain on his own. With a twinge of remorse in his heart he lay the paper upon his cluttered Mahoganny desk and turned his attention back to the toneless though colourful screen of his computer terminal. Upon that screen was a message addressed to Admiral M Wood of the Federation Starship Redemption. With a swift jab of his index finger that Admiral opened the message and began to pore through it's contents, a mundane task he was forced to repeat several times a day and the price he paid in exchange for being allowed to continue leading from the Bridge of a starship - his Starship. The contents were simple enough reading, simply listing through the reports from the ongoing efforts to bring the Miradorn's small but powerful fleet into the great Alliance being formed against the Andromedan Empire. Wood finished reading and chuckled inwardly to himself, noting how pompous Admiral Ross had sounded in his report from the Miradorn homeworld. Scant entertainment for the man who was leading the Alliance's fleet on the front lines.

A gentle bleeping emanated from the door to Wood's Ready Room, heralding the entrance of Commander Beast. The painfully thin grey skinned alien looked at Wood with his elliptical black eyes as he entered and took a seat in the sofa that faced Wood's desk. A PADD protruded from his three fingered left hand, "That time of the day again Sir." He stated comfortably, leaning forward slightly to deliver the data storage device to the Admiral.

Wood made a face, creasing his features up so that his green eyes seemed to glow in the light, "Need I even read it Number One?"

Beast inclined his head, "All Departments report thier people are working at full capacity sir. The new arrivals have integrated well with thier new peers and the Lateral Sensor Array will be offline for two hours starting at 1100 hours."

Wood shook his head, "I thought Lieutenant Hunt had fixed that glitch in that array."

Beast did not make any bodily signs of frustration, though Wood knew this was probably frustrating him, "So did I sir."

Wood placed the PADD gently next door to the old note, "And so begins a refreshingly boring day on board my ship. Thank you Commander."

Beast, dismissed, stood and walked out of the tan doors to the blue lights of the Bridge. Wood sat back in his chair and pulled his computer a little closer, "Computer. Play audio track, Solitude by Evanesence."

Today was going to be a quiet day, and Admiral Wood was looking forward to enjoying every second of it.


	2. Chapter 2

Bremmler Station was nothing out of the ordinary as far as Federation space facilities were concerned. A standard Regula pattern station, Bremmler was occupied by a contingent of 300 Starfleet officers who acted as protection for 15 Scientists who lived and worked within the ageing turquoise walls. A hum of excitement resonated above the regular white noise of the various intricate systems that kept the occupant's feet on the decks and air in thier lungs, in the mess hall the clinking of glasses could be heard intermingling with laughter and conversation. The people of this station had something to celebrate, creating an air of contented slovenliness as even the Starfleet crew joined in the festivities. 

An artifact had been discovered, an artifact of Andromedan origin which could be as old as 1500 years. The Head Scientist, a tall well groomed man named Andrew Teller, walked around the 2 metre tall Silver cylinder now residing in Laboratory 1. His eyes caressed every gleaming inch of the structure, taking in the intricate markings and strange hyroglyphs with a deep fascination. His mind was surging with ideas, with the adrenaline of excitement that made him want to leap up and attempt to touch the ceiling. He wanted to scan it, touch it, analyse it, hypothesise over it, write papers on it. He wanted to learn about every facet, every intimate detail of this device and it's purpose. Why was it here? What did it do? How did it come to be here? With shaking hands he pulled a PADD off a small workbench and stepped closer to the cylinder.

An abandoned Ops centre came to life with alerts and information, attempting to inform a crew that should have been manning the many glowing consoles of the arrival of a Federation Akira class starship in the station's vicinity. Its name was Hastings.

Teller was so absorbed in his translations, mind awhirl with ancient Andromedan texts and contemporary comparisons, that he did not hear the dull thud of several lifeless bodies landing on the deck plating. He was so distracted that the first notion he had of something being amiss was a harsh, toneless male voice speaking no more than four paces from his back.

"I'll have one of these to go."

Teller cracked his chin against the smooth canister suface as he gave a start at the new voice. He began to laugh as he turned around to face the visitor, "Very funny, but as you well know this is..." His voice tailed off as his eyes fell upon the man standing before him.

A Vulcan, hair and eyes as dark as the vaccum of space, regarded the Scientist with condenscending hostility. His tall, well formed frame cast an intimidating shadow over the much smaller Civilian. No words were spoken, a deathly silence falling over the room as dreadful realisation struck Teller with a hammer blow.

"Why are you taking this? Who are you?" He stammered, attempting vainly to reassert himself. He was the Head of the Science Team here dammit!

The Vulcan silently stepped forward, a move which caused Teller to take an involuntary step back and away from the Canister. Something warm and smooth glided across Teller's throat, followed by something warm and wet splashing against the front of his clothing. He looked down and saw to his horror it was his own blood, eyes widened as he tried to draw in air and was rewarded with nothing more than a desperate gurgle. His legs gave way, sending him crashing to the deck as the life flowed out of the gaping wound in his neck like a river flows to the Ocean. The Vulcan stepped disdainfully over his body, "Nice to finally meet you." He spoke into his reflection on the cylinder, "I've been looking forward to this aquaintance."

"Bremmler Station?" Wood enquired, his vocal tone suggesting he was as intriuged as he was confused. The station had no real significance strategically nor was it the known site of anything of military value.

"We recieved a Distress call a few moments ago from there sir." Lieutenant Commander Tusami, the Andorian Security Chief, stated.

"It mentioned us by name." Beast added tonelessly, which belied the fact that such an occurance was highly unusual.

"Why would Bremmler station call for help...but only from us?" Lieutenant Hunt mused, rubbing his stubbly chin with his thick calloused fingers.

"Why indeed." Wood added, "Number One. Set a course for Bremmler Station, Maximum Warp. Have us on Yellow Alert for arrival."

Wood did not move as his Senior staff stood and filed out of the ship's conference lounge. His eyes wandered thier surroundings, exploring the cabinet containing minatures of Starfleet's most famous Starship classes. He lingered there for a moment, looking for some kind of inspiration that the thin, curved room could not offer. Even staring out of the long, rounded windows offered no aid. Something about this distress signal did not sit right, his gut feeling told him he should ignore the message and report the anomolous message to Earth. He weighed up the potential probelsm that would cause, most likely leading to his being directed to Bremmler Station anyway.

"Computer, open a channel with Starfleet Headquarters..."

The vast, sculpted silhouette of a Galaxy Class starship slowed from Warp before the burning glare of the systems Sun, swooping effortlessly towards the darkened exterior of Bremmler station. Within the Redemption's bridge, which was lit in a calming ice blue light when not at Red Alert, Commander Beast ordered the ship to a Full Stop. He regarded thier destination for a moment on the viewscreen, his pitch black eyes unmoving as they studied the now-lifeless Station, "Inform the Admiral we have arrived at Bremmler station."

Tusami nodded and made the appropriate com-call, summoning the Admiral from his Ready Room.

"Bremmler Station is a Science post," Wood stated as he emerged from the grey doors, holding a PADD as he made his way to the centre of the circular Bridge module, "It's used for conducting studies on Ancient weapons artifacts discovered in this region of space."

Beast waved a limb towards the station, "It appears we are too late to aid them sir."

"I'm picking up one lifesign. It's constant but surrounded by distortion, like there is some kind of large power source nearby." Tusami added to Beast's gloomy report.

"That's odd. So these invaders did thier business, left one person alive by the Power Core and simply switched off the lights before leaving?" Wood noted, his gut instincts screaming at him to leave now. He pushed them aside and instructed Beast to assemble an away team. Right now gathering some information about this strange incident was preferable to running away.

As his Andromedan First Officer left to assemble the away team Wood sat himself in the Captain's chair, running his left hand through his hair. What artifact could have been on that station that was worth stealing, let alone killing all but one of it's occupants for. These tactics almost looked familiar, uncomfortably familiar. It stirred up memories that he would rather keep buried. Wood sighed as he allowed himself to look back upon those times, searching for some insight into this situation before him in the hope of getting ahead of whatever game was being played with them here.


	3. Chapter 3

"Captain's Personal log. Stardate 52094. After almost a year operating behind enemy lines the toll that has been taken by this isolationist operation can clearly be seen at a casual glance. Most of our systems have either been patched up at least once or hastily fixed at some Starbase close to the front so we can get back out there quickly. In short - we're running a patchwork ship. The crew are in good spirits, thank the lord, as we have seen more than our fair share of action. Most of it alone..." 

"Computer, pause playback." The Admiral ran his left hand through his hazel hair, sighing heavily with his attempts to rebury a past that was rising from the grave he had created for it. He hated listening to his logs from the Hastings. Those days were dark enough without the memory of how it had all ended, now he was forced to relive them to figure out what was going on, why they were resurfacing after being in the shadows for so long and why they had stolen a seemingly useless Andromedan Artifact. It certainly was uesless without knwledge of what it was for, or indeed how to operate it.

"Computer, play Audio - Nightwish song Over the hills and Far Away." He liked listening to somewhat more dramatic music to help soothe and inspire him. Most Officers listened to Jazz or Classical Music, which worked fine in this day in age. Wood however never really shared that affinity for older music forms and had managed to recover a number of musical tracks from Earth's late 20th and early 21st Centuries which served a much more balanced purpose to him. He liked to describe it as his 'mood music', playing different genres that fit his current mood. At that moment, his mood simply fit his wish to not have to deal with this skeleton in his closet. He got out of the comfort of his leather chair and moved to the window, staring out at the stars with the music coursing through his soul.

The music Wood played in his Ready Room could be vaugly heard by the occupants of the Redemption's expansive Bridge, working to keep the ship running under the relaxing ice blue day lighting that characterised the Redemption and her unusual nature. Lieutenant Commander Tusami's Andorian blue skin seemed to blend in with the lighting, sometimes creating an eerie effect to his human collegues. The Acting Security Chief checked his readouts at Tactical and called one of his staff over, instructing the man to conduct a search for Ion trails. He was currently the ranking officer on the bridge, which gave him the right to sit in the Captain's chair located below his own console. Tusami glanced at it as he monitored the Away team but resisted the temptation to go and try it out. He was much more useful to his fellows where he stood now, watching the Away mission for the slightest sign of trouble. Although he did not think a single Akira Class starship and her crew would be much of a threat, the Admiral seemed to think otherwise. Curiosity pricked at Tusami's mind as he opened up a new display on his console and began to skim over recent reports regarding the starship Hastings, searching for any signs of modifications or other tactial changes that would render the ship a greater hazard to the Redemption and her crew. Most of what he saw was fairly standard, a standard Akira Class vessel with a standard crew compliment. He was about to close the window when he noticed something written about the ship's self-proclaimed Captain. The file was restricted, which seemed unusual considering the relevance it might have for those who might encounter the Hastings, Tusami's efforts to open it went to no avail. Whoever wanted that file buried had doen a good job of stopping prying eyes from looking at it. He hummed for a moment over this unexpected issue before tapping his com badge, "Tusami to Konigawa. Please report to the Bridge."

Human vomit struck the darkened deck plating with a wet slap, mingling with the gags and groans of a Security Officer obviously new to the job as Beast's away team stepped into Bremmler Station's Technology Lab. Even the war hardened Andromedan found the sight before him replusive, the stench of death thick in the cavernous research lab. Lieutenant Dravis Sky, Commander of the ship's Elite Team Alpha Squad, gingerly stepped forward and almost tripped over the sprawled body of a civilian scientist. Cursing under his breath the Augmented human bent down to inspect the body, pulling out a tricorder and running the breifest of scans before coughing back the lump that had formed in his throat, "Phaser Burn to the forehead. He was dead before he even hit the ground Commander."

Beast nodded his understanding and replied by asking Sky's group to check the rest of the bodies for consistency in the causes of death. If his hunch was correct, they would all sport phaser wounds to the same spots on thier body - an indication of the quality of soldiers they would face later on. His opaque black eyes scanned the darkness, searching for any kind of clues the attackers had left behind for the Redemption crew to find. This kind of attack suggested they wanted, even hoped for a Starfleet crew to come and investigate what happened here. If that was the case then this attack was a provocation, a dare to persue them that the Admiral would be unlikely to ignore. Considering the personal and highly emotional way in which Wood had reacted to this incident Beast was growing concerned about the Admiral's objectivity. If it started to become dangerous he would be forced to take action against his friend, a prospect that did not give the Commander any joy at all.


End file.
